Damhnait
=Appearance= Damhnait is hardened, large and imposing for a female, with a gentler face that seems not to match the rest of her. Her size and short hair often means she is mistaken for a male when approached from behind by a stranger, but the cold look she gives upon turning to face the stranger clears up the misunderstanding without words. Battle has always been a hobby as well as a profession, so it is rare to see her unprepared for a fight - even her social clothing would be considered battle armor by most, and it is often stained with blood from far previous engagements. Her broadsword rarely leaves her back. =Personality= Damhnait is a very serious and conservative individual, to the point where jokes and sarcasm are often lost on her. She always considers herself to be on-duty as Captain of the Militia of the Dreamers' encampment and rarely loses the awareness that her actions reflect back on the collective. To this end, she rarely drinks or engages in "frivolous" activities, even with friendly acquaintances. Her word can always be taken as gold and can be easily recruited to assist others, though out of a joy for battle rather than any sense of altruism. She takes her national pride seriously, and often makes disparaging remarks of other races, although she means them as fact more than as prejudice. She is also known to chide other Cimmerians whom she believes have been "tainted" by civilization or that are acting in ways unbecoming of a warrior. She is also very legalistic; she would not break a law under any circumstance. She is a strong believer in the chain of command and follows whomever she has chosen to follow without fault, regardless of personal misgivings over decisions made by that commander. There is only one exception: she refuses to go to war, or to commit atrocities against civilians, as she has seen first-hand the devastation wrought upon those who walk that path. =History= Damhnait is one of a pair of orphaned fraternal twins. Her father died when she was young, and her mother died thereafter of grief. Both Damhnait and her twin brother Kernach were adopted by their uncle, who was the leader of their small clan at that time. Damhnait's clan had been fighting a civil war against a rival clan, the Gormnann, for a generation before Damhnait's birth, and it had taken its toll. Their numbers had dwindled to half, and during the course of her childhood, they were driven from their ancestral home in the foothills of the Eiglophean mountains. By the time Damhnait reached an age old enough to participate in battle, her chieftain uncle had taken up guerrilla terrorist tactics against the Gormnann, wreaking havoc on any who dared to wander into the forest, regardless of warrior status, gender, or age, all in a desperate attempt to gain back their homeland. While neither Damhnait nor her brother were ever comfortable with these tactics, both were trained in them and often led small parties of raiders into the now-Gormnann territory. She was taken away from battle duties at age sixteen when her chieftain arranged a marriage for her, in an effort to produce more children to repopulate the clan's ranks. The marriage was to a not-so-distant cousin, whom she felt nothing for, but her options were slim as the reputation of her clan for their relentless tactics against the Gormnann had earned them no friends among the other clans in the area. She accepted the marriage begrudgingly but after two years, no children were produced. The marriage was dissolved and the cousin was married to another woman, who easily bore him children. Damhnait returned to the front lines with the shame of being considered barren, and threw herself into the battles recklessly, as if to prove her worth there to fix her shame at home. Some time afterwards, her uncle died, and her brother Kernach succeeded him as chieftain. The terrorist tactics ceased and Kernach ordered the war to end. The Gormnann, however, did not care to speak to Kernach, and the other clans put no pressure on them, so no peace was ever agreed upon. Damhnait's clan quickly moved out of Gormnann territory to a nearly-inhospitable area of icy tundra just outside the border to end the conflict. Their new home suffered a very harsh winter, however, and the clan suffered greatly, their numbers dipping to the lowest it had ever been. Many of the oldest and youngest members died and morale was grim. When the winter winds subsided enough, Kernach sent Damhnait out alone to scout for a better homeland. She found a valley some distance away that seemed practically immune to the poor weather, and returned to the tundra with the good news. As she approached, however, she came across an encampment with a Gormnann arrow that had only been abandoned a short time ago, and a sense of dread filled her. Her fears were confirmed when she found them all dead. At first she thought that they had been slaughtered by the Gormnann, but as she examined the bodies of her friends and family, she saw that the weapons were still plunged into their hearts, and that the insignias were all from her own clan. They had, by some strange power, all turned on one another at once, and none lived. She began burying them, and in her intense grief she did not notice the attack coming from behind. It was her brother Kernach, his eyes wild, trying to kill her. His sword missed its mark but cut deeply into her back, which is a scar she bears to this day. She managed to fight through the pain, and drove her sword home to put him out of his misery. Damhnait was never the same after that, and any lightheartedness she might have had as a teenager was lost. She left Cimmeria then and went in search of the world, looking for answers as to what could have caused such a tragedy. She suspects the Gormnann found some sort of dark power that they used against her clan as punishment, but she never saw any of the Gormnann again, and she assumes that they met a terrible fate to match their own crimes. As her clan died in a state of disgrace and dishonor, she does not speak their name to avoid ostracizing herself, and considers herself to be clanless. =Current Status= Damhnait currently serves as the Captain of the Militia for the Dreamers of Nithia, having been recruited into the organization by the priestess who has since mysteriously disappeared. Her Dark Templar companion and oft-rumored lover also disappeared at the same time, supposedly to seek out the priestess, but Damhnait has since resolved that he was likely lost to his dark side without the light of the priestess to guide him. Damhnait often travels to places where practitioners of dark arts congregate, in hopes of hearing anything that might shed light on his whereabouts or about the mysterious death of her clan. The rest of her time is spent patrolling the countryside around the Dreamers' settlement in Poitain or recruiting hired hands to serve in her militia. =Stories= Alone Among the Graves -- character story about Damhnait's time just prior to leaving Cimmeria Category:Dreamers of Nithia